Construction skills in hot demand

Joel Schlesinger, Calgary Herald06.27.2011

Larry Rosia, dean of SAIT's School of Construction, believes that the next industry boom will be bigger than the last one, "with the last one creating quite a bit of havoc with the shortage in skilled labour."

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Brad Powers loves his job -and it's a good thing because he's going to have a lot of work in the coming decade.

About to enter his fourth and final year as a carpenter apprenticeship, the SAIT Polytechnic student says he didn't imagine he'd be on the verge of becoming a journeyman six years ago when he moved from Newfoundland to Calgary.

"I was a steelworker, but I knew I wanted to get into a trade after working here for a few years," says the 32-year-old. "There was a lot of construction at the time with the boom, and carpentry seemed like the thing to do."

Powers had no background in the field so he took a two-month pre-employment course at SAIT about three years ago.

"You can walk up to any business and beg and plead for a job, but pre-employment really helped me out," he says. "It opened up a lot of doors."

Powers soon found a job as an apprentice with a local construction company. Now, he is on his way to promising future in the trade.

And his timing couldn't be better. After three years of recovery from the province's last boom and bust cycle, the next uptick in economic development is poised to begin, say experts.

But unlike the previous boom, industry has been working with technical colleges and other postsecondary education institutions to meet the expected labour demands.

"What industry is saying is that this next boom is going to be bigger than the last one, and the last one created quite a bit of havoc with the shortage in skilled labour," says Larry Rosia, dean of SAIT's School of Construction.

"That has an effect on the economy because the wages start to spike as employers fight over workers simply because there aren't enough to go around."

This time, the goal is to train the skilled workers needed to meet the demands.

"The timing would be almost perfect to go back to school because the industry will pick up either next year or even the latter part of this year," Rosia says.

And every construction trade and technical vocation -from plumbers and electrician to tilesetters to civil engineering technicians -will be in high demand.

"In Alberta, there's $193 billion worth of projects that are on the books," says Rosia.

That's more demand than the training schools can meet, he adds. The Construction Owners Association of Alberta estimates there will be a 40,000-worker gap in Alberta because of the pending construction projects.

While most of the growth will be in northern Alberta's oilsands, the economic spinoffs will reverberate throughout the province -higher wages in and around Fort McMurray will draw skilled and experienced workers there, creating shortages elsewhere. Increased industrial construction projects in the oilsands will also lead to increases in commercial, residential and institutional construction because the high demand for labour will bring workers from across Canada and globe.

The Alberta Chamber of Resources task force on resource development in the economy says that within the next 25 years, Alberta is estimating about 4.2 million person years of employment, notes Rosia.

Newcomers need places to live, places to shop for goods and schools for their children. The influx of migration year after year also requires infrastructure improvements for roads, hospitals and utilities.

Construction contractors are acutely aware of the coming labour crunch. They note that even during the downturn and subsequent recovery, finding experienced skilled workers was a challenge.

He says firms know labourforce development is essential during the slow times to be successful when the economy heats up again.

"We try to help our current trade partners develop new labour pools," he says. "They'll get the trainees and we try to provide any resources they need in terms of safety training.

"The goal is to stabilize the workforce that you have, and as business grows, you hopefully can grow the labour pool to keep up with your needs."

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